General day to day ramblings

Age is no excuse to slow down.

12 April bigkevmatthews@gmail.com 2 Comments

In January 2017 I wrote a post on slowing down to speed up. Basically I was saying that by slowing down and running more aerobically, governed by the heart rate, you could, long term, speed up and race faster. I proved this by using Strava ( http://www.strava.com ) data to show how on one of my favourite runs I had actually slowed down but at the same time my race PB’s had improved, this the title ‘Sometimes you need to slow down to speed up’. I recommend researching the Maffetone method of training. ( https://philmaffetone.com )

After the Bridges 10k this weekend I had more evidence of this theory. This was the 6th time I had run the bridges and my first sub 35 minute finish, and top 10, at the ripe old age of 51. My Bridges times are :-

2010 36:40

2011 35:59

2016 35:50

2017 35:12

2018 34:59

What has changed over time to see the constant improvement, albeit small, and the answer is experience. In 2008 I really started to run seriously while training for the Comrades ultra-marathon ( http://www.comrades.com) and I completed this race in the subsequent two years as well. Those three years gave me the foundation and spring board to racing success and I have built on that annually, each year running more and longer. This has allowed me to continually record PB’s (PR’s to the American’s among us) even into my fifties and infact the last couple of years have been the most productive with times I thought well beyond me.

So what is the holy grail of running that allows you to keep breaking records well into your fifties. ? Truth be told there is no single thing unfortunately, if there was and I knew what it was I would be a rich man. It is a combination of so many things but each one helps to build the PB running machine you need to be. My 9 Golden rules sum up most of these and if you follow them you will certainly be well on track to at least improve your running and that should translate into quicker racing.

Run Further. Add distance, not speed.

Run Faster. This is about adding pace after you have got your foundation after rule 1.

Don’t get injured. This is the hardest rule to obey as you always want to do more of rule 1 and 2 which can result in an injury. (I even hate typing the word!)

Nutrition, nutrition and nutrition… Did I mention nutrition. It’s all about the proper fuel.

Weight. So important, use to believe because I ran 100k+ a week I could eat what I wanted. Not true.

Baseline, document and evaluate everything. If it isn’t on www.strava.com it didn’t happen. Once you set a goal you have to be able to know how far you have come to achieving this, small steps but constant feedback. So buy a Garmin and start recording , everything !!!

Sleep. So underestimated but the bodies way of refuelling and preparing for the next day of running. Common sense but so often ignored.

Consistency. No point running 100k one week and then nothing. Marathon fitness is built up over time and this works hand in hand with rule number 1.

It’s all in the mind. After 32k a marathon is down to mental strength and the ability to persuade your body you can still perform at your desired pace without falling to fatigue, which is the minds way of protecting itself. Never underestimate the power of the mind in long distance racing.

The rules themselves are common running sense but running ain’t complicated, do more and you will get better. I have said this on a number of posts over the years ‘running is the most honest sport I know’, there really is no shortcuts. When was the last time you heard someone say, after a marathon, ‘well that was easy and with no training, a 30 minute PB‘….. sorry people, doesn’t happen ! You get out what you put in, that should be the ultimate meme to running.

There are plenty of extra rules I could add but my mate Phil reckons rules need to be odd numbers and nine sounds better than eleven; and thirteen is getting too many, it’d be like being back at school. It’s a pity because I want to add a rule about double days being so productive , albeit time on feet only to protect yourself from injury (I hate typing that word.) . They certainly helped me in 2016 and I’m a big fan still, we run cause we love running so doing what you love twice a day, instead of once, its a no brainer really. ?

There’s also the Yelo effect. Our Thursday 14k morning progressive runs, starting and finishing at the Yelo Cafe in Trigg , (http://www.yelocornerstore.com.au ) has certainly helped my running times and those who join me. Is this the running session or the coffee and muffin afterwards ? A tough question and one I refuse to answer as there is no way, no way, I’m giving up Yelo muffins. Maybe this is rule number 11, eat Yelo muffins. Unfortunate for my global readers who live out with Perth but a bonus for the lucky runners who follow me who live close by.

Is the Yelo muffin the reason for my longevity?

Of course all of these runs are available on Strava (if it’s not on Strava it didn’t happen, Golden rule number 6 ) and if you want to follow me feel free to click on the link below, lets you get an idea of what I do and also check out more photos of me and the boys sitting around eating muffins and pancakes mainly?

Follow me on

General day to day ramblings

Improve by resting, how good is running ?

26 March bigkevmatthews@gmail.com 0 Comment

What other sport makes you better by not doing it ? Running is probably unique by allowing you to actually improve over time by scheduling in rest days, giving your body time to recuperate. Personally I love running and regularly try and hit a ‘perfect week’ which in my eyes is 14 runs a week. My logic is the professionals run twice a day (or more) so if I can replicate that then I can maybe improve ‘like the pro’s’ . Note, I do realise it will be ‘like the pro’s’ i.e. a slightly slower version.

Last week I ran 14 times and just a few hundred metres short of 160km. How did it make me feel, well and truely knackered truth be told. Yesterday I found it very hard to eat dinner and even stay awake, I had moved into over training so it was time for drastic actions, a day off. Rest days to me are alien to my twice a day normal running routine but sometimes even I have to bow to the obvious traits of over training and put away the trainers. As I have said many times on this blog I run because I love running and running twice a day is not a chore to me but a blessing that I can do what I love twice a day, rather than just once. Non-runners will never understand this and most runners are single or intermittent daily runners. Looking back over my training program over the years I have increased my weekly, monthly and annual mileage and the best way to do this is to run twice a day with the second run normally a ‘smell the roses‘ type run, not interested in pace just time on legs. Remember people there is no such thing as junk miles, they all count.

So the signs of over training, there’s a few. Personally my average heart rate is higher (I wear a Garmin 235 which syncs with Garmin Connect and Strava, so allows me to keep an eye on my average HR) sleep patterns are interrupted, you feel grumpy, lose weight, your urine is darker than normal (indicating dehydration) and your workouts just don’t seem to hit those highs they did previously. Experience any of these , or all of them, and over training is the probable reason. It’s time to relax and do other stuff that non-runners do, whatever that is ? Me I just chill with Netflix and normally end up watching documentaries on running or sports related stories, just because you can’t run doesn’t mean you can’t watch people running ?

Anikka Brauns of McMillan Running wrote a great article describing the importance of rest days.

THE IMPORTANCE OF REST DAYS

As a runner and with most things in life when I do something I go all in, 100%, and I don’t like to break my routine. I think that most runners feel the same way and would agree that taking a day off from running can sometimes feel like a punishment. I didn’t do a lot right as a collegiate runner and I found out along the way that my body needs rest, sometimes more rest than my running buddy, and that is okay. I’ve learned that a key to successful long-term training is learning how to read your body, understanding what your body needs to train at its highest potential, and then trusting that process and sticking with it. Here are a few tips on how to handle adding rest days as part of your training program.

THE VALUE OF REST DAYS

In college I got into the habit of taking Fridays off because that was our NCAA day off (the day we were not allowed to meet as a team and my coach would allow us to cross train if needed). It just became a routine for me to aqua jog on Fridays. Sometimes I would run instead because I wanted to run with my roommates or I was short on time and going to and from the pool took longer than running out of my front door. I always felt a little beat up come Sunday if I did not take a rest day that week. Over the years as I developed as a runner and matured as a person and athlete, I have learned the value in taking a rest day. It allows my body a full day of rest from pounding, something I really needed in college when I was battling injuries and struggling to stay healthy.

Taking a rest day also allows your body to absorb the training you have been doing and you may actually see a fitness boost following a day of rest. This is the same logic that applies with lifting weights. You make your gains when you take a rest day and allow the body to absorb the work you have been doing. Running follows the progressive overload principle (the gradual increase of stress placed upon the body during exercise training) and as we adapt to that stress on our body we get strong enough to handle back-to-back runs. We don’t do back-to-back speed workouts though because it’s the easy run between them that is designed to be active recovery. Active recovery is a day or two where you are specifically recovering from the stress you placed on your body during the speed session.

Some runners can handle not taking a day off during a training segment but there are other runners, like myself, that need a rest day here and there. Think about rest days as an important part of your training and one that will only help you to improve your training quality and racing times.

SCHEDULING REST DAYS AS PART OF YOUR PROGRAM

These days I am strong enough to handle a rest day every 2-4 weeks, however, I still find it challenging to take that day. As routine people and lovers of the sport we crave our run every day. So how do we replace that feeling? I find that if I do some sort of exercise I feel okay about taking a rest day. As a busy wife and mom of two children, it is a bit harder for me to get to the gym so my go-to on rest days now includes 30 minutes of strength work with some sort of cardio mixed in: jumping jacks or spin bike for 1-2 minutes between sets. This routine seems to be enough for me to mentally feel like I did something physical but also to know that I’m taking an important day off running that my body needs to keep training at the volume and demand that I am asking of it.

Try scheduling rest days into your program whether it is once a week, twice a month or once a month or somewhere in between. Tell your coach if you need to take a rest day on a specific day that you prefer and how often you need it. If it is on your schedule you are more likely to take it and as runners, we tend to follow our schedules! I know that many of the McMillan athletes I coach ask for a rest day at least once per week. They use this day to cross train or get other things done around the house, run errands etc. Embrace the day off as an integral part of your development and improvement as a runner. Welcome your rest days and learn to enjoy that time too.

LEARN TO LISTEN TO YOUR BODY

Maybe you are the type of athlete that doesn’t ever take a rest day during your segment. I suggest planning at least one day off during your block of training: do something fun or plan it as part of a trip and take the stress away from having to cram in a run before you catch your flight. Runners tend to get so caught up in a routine that we will do anything to get our run in, even if it means stressing ourselves out to do it. If you know your body and you truly don’t need or want a day off during a training segment just keep these tips in mind and be flexible if you find that you are feeling a little bit run down or stressed about getting your run in. One rest day can give you a few more days running, especially if you are feeling run down or injury prone.

What about days off for injuries? So many times I felt like I should have taken another day off after an injury or dealing with a small annoyance, but I just kept running and it only made it worse. Greg often talks about the importance of taking one extra day off coming back from an injury. This means that even if you feel you are ready to resume training, give yourself one extra day. This strategy won’t hurt you and by taking another day of rest you can ensure you’ll stay healthy in the long run. This same principle applies with any nagging ache or pain you may be feeling or something random that pops up after a run. If you have to question the run, just take a rest day to give yourself time off running and then try tomorrow. It will probably be a hard decision if you are anything like me but you will never regret one day off if it means that you can keep running healthy and injury-free. Remember the golden tip to train smarter, not harder.

General day to day ramblings

Want to get quicker, go shorter and faster.

06 March bigkevmatthews@gmail.com 0 Comment

Dean Karnazes once said “If you want to run a mile, run a mile. If you want to experience a different life, run a marathon. If you want to talk to God, run an Ultra.” I wonder who you talk to when you race a 5k ? For me it is another case of testing yourself against yourself, how hard do you want to go and how much pain are you willing to suffer in the pursuit of ‘being the best you can be’.

This Sunday I decided to run the Joondalup Park Run as it had been nearly two years since I ran there and my time of 17:29 was relatively pedestrian by my normal finishing times. I had just started training with Raf from the Running Centre ( http://www.therunningcentre.com.au) and was coming out of a running slump brought on by a marathon blow-up the previous year. Funnily enough the ‘blow-out’ was a mental thing as I was defending my Bunbury Marathon title won the previous year (2013) and in good form, unfortunately I was more interested in the competition than my own pace and goals and set off way too quick. To cut a long story short (which is unlike me) I was walking through the drinks station at 15k. I did manage to regroup and finish a credible 4th in a time of 2hrs 54minutes but I was in 2:45 form all day. Anyhow I digress.

The parkrun is a free timed run every Saturday morning starting at 8am. ( http://www.parkrun.com/ ) Parkrun started back in 2004 when 13 runners got together on a blustery day in Bushy Park, Teddington, UK. We’re now an international family of over half a million runners (and counting). From the parkrun website.

We’re super proud of the fact our volunteer-led, free-for-all 5km runs have been taken up by so many people across so many cultures in so many countries. Of course, it was a bit more low key at the beginning…

Our first ever event was in Bushy park, Teddington, UK, where 13 intrepid parkrunners got together on 2 October 2004. The volunteer team included Paul and Joanne Sinton-Hewitt, Duncan Gaskell, Simon Hedger and Robin Drummond.

It took nearly two years before parkrun spread beyond Bushy. Wimbledon was the chosen venue and we had to prove to ourselves that we could manage more than a single event at a time. This was the start of the ‘cookie cutter’ approach to events that would allow parkrun to expand.

To begin with we collated all results on paper and the finish tokens were washers from the local hardware store! But eventually we ramped up the technology, and so the parkrun registration and barcode result system was born.

Now many thousands of runners are processed, websites updated and emails sent each week. The parkrun community is growing all the time – but it’s all still based on the simple, basic principles formed from the start: weekly, free, 5km, for everyone, forever.

In Perth at the moment there are well over 20 parkruns scattered around the city and surrounding suburbs, there’s even a parkrun ultra when a group of very ‘special’ runners hire a bus and run all of them over a 24 hour period. If the timing is right I’m certainly going to try and fit that one into my racing calendar.

So what does a 5k parkrun teach you about yourself ? First of all it teaches you about pain management because, trust me people, you invariably don’t give it the respect it deserves and always go out at your 1500m pace, well that’s the way I run them. I love the ‘scolded cat’ start and always run the first kilometer 10-15 seconds than the rest and although that doesn’t seem a lot it means more time in the ‘pain box’ . I have always promised myself I’ll run a 3:30 min/k for the first one but as soon as we get going it’s on for young and old and I’m sprinting as fast as I can for the lead and ‘1st finisher’ position. (In the parkrun there is no winner or losers but there is a 1st finisher.) Sunday at Joondalup was no exception and my first kilometer was a 3:13 as I chased down a young ‘wipper-snapper’ who dared jump ahead of me at the start. ! I then settled down into a more sustainable pace and got to halfway in some resemblance of being able to run back in a similar time, which I did.

Unfortunately I’m painting too rosy a picture here. I admit I got a good time and was better than expected but I feel the Nike Vaporfly 4%’ers accounted for that. (trust me people these bad boys of a shoe is paramount to cheating !!) The last 2k of a 5k you will be deep, deep in the pain box and holding on for dear life, questioning your existence but that’s the point of racing. What it does give you is a training marker or confidence booster (assuming you ran well) or a reality check (assuming you didn’t run well); this then becomes your target for the following weekend. (remember people they are free.) Finally being a Saturday it allows you to recover from this ‘speed session’ with the obligatory long and easy run Sunday, the 5k parkrun really is the race that keep on giving.

If you live in one of those countries where the parkrun is yet to startup you can easily measure a 5k route and just time yourself, maybe get a few friends and start a parkrun yourself, easily done apparently. Either way a 5k time trial is a distance that ever runner needs to have in their arsenal, it ticks so many boxes and the feeling you get when you finish is euphoric, trust me ! Most importantly it allows you to gauge where you are in preparation for longer events, namely the marathon of course.

General day to day ramblings

Hello fatigue, I’ve been expecting you.

02 March bigkevmatthews@gmail.com 2 Comments

After the Point Walter 16k (10 miler) over the weekend I knew my old friend fatigue and his mate DOMS (Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness) were coming to play, I was not disappointed. Monday morning my recovery run could be described as a ‘stumble’ at best, all memory of the previous days exploits were quickly forgotten. This is the norm for runners of my vintage although it seems the younger models are not affected as bad, the real young ones not at all apparently. (Oh, how youth is wasted on the young!) Of course my old mate Tony ‘T-Train’ Smith is the exception to the rule , all good rules have one I suppose. Even though the T-train is sneaking up on my age he seems to recover like a man half his age, very unsettling and I chatise him regularly on Stava ( http://www.strava.com ) He is prone to the odd injury, truth-be-told , but never recovering apparently.

The week for me is just about written off, pace wise, and I just settle down into running very slowly while feeling the effort doesn’t justify the final product or pace. The legs feel like ‘lumps of wood’ with no bounce at all. I tend to seek out hills as pace is not an issue and you feel, even though you’re running at a pace that could be described as ‘pedestrian’ at best, you’re getting some benefit due to gradient and gravity.

I’ve attached a post I wrote this time last year about fatigue and after rereading it I reckon its worth a second visit, also I’m so fatigued I’m not sure I can keep typing….

Hello fatigue, fancy a biscuit with that cup of tea?

This morning, on the week anniversary of the Australia Day Ultra (ADU) , I was running a 10k easy but feeling fatigued to a point I was finding maintaining 5min/k average a struggle. It was just about 8am , the exact time a week earlier I was finishing the last kilometre of the 100k in about the same pace. This mornings run I was well rested the night before and, truth be told, had an easy week recovery. The legs though were struggling to maintain the last lap pace of the ADU. Fatigue had come to pay a visit and it was time to take an afternoon off.

When fatigue comes calling the best thing to do is rest. I have posted before about running on tired legs and the benefit of this but I feel fatigue is the next level and probably needs to be approached from the ‘rest is good’ angle. You’ll know the difference between fatigue and tired legs because there is more of a mental feature involved in fatigue. It’s not just the legs that are normally tired, it’s you thinking you ‘just ain’t feeling it’. Even after the 1k (always go for at least 1k before deciding to pull the pin on a run, most times things begin to improve in k2) which you normally use as a tester you still can’t seem to pick up the pace. You can normally finish the run if it’s less than 10k, anything more and you need to reconsider and probably turn early.

Rest is good solution to fatigue but it depends on your workload, in my case I didn’t run in the afternoon , saving my legs for Sunday’s long run with the boys. I’ll make an effort to run within myself tomorrow but must admit if the boys decide to go hard I’ll have to go with them, it would be rude not to. The fatigue I’m feeling at the moment will pass and listening to my body I realise this is a small road bump on my freeway to PB land and one that will be negotiated. The afternoon was spent blogging and drinking tea and eating the odd biscuit, not a bad way to rest in my view. Running really is the sport that keeps on giving, when your body feels it needs a rest you get to drink tea and eat biscuits, I mean what other sport gives you that option. (Tomorrow is another bonus day for us runners, the post long run pancakes. Running really is the sport of the Gods.)

Since June last year I have doubled up most days and I certainly feel my body is now use to the two runs a day, albeit normally easy runs. This extra workload culminated in many PB’s in the final few months of 2016. When something is working there is no point changing it so for the foreseeable future it will be double up days , continuing to build up the foundation from 2016. The only issue with my master plan is really I haven’t factored in rest. It is something I’ve not done in the last 6 months and even now do not intend to have rest days moving forward. That is not to say this is the right thing to do but I’m enjoying my running so much lately a day off is not something I aspire to. So it’s time to roll the dice again and see if I can persuade the body that the workload is achievable and the end result justified. I’m confident I can, until then I got time for one more cup of tea and maybe a digestive or two…

The article below from Jenny Hadfield from Runners World gives a few reasons for fatigue and solutions. Worth a read.

I have seen this in my athletes, and in most cases if you look at the following variables, you can identify the culprit and modify your plan to preserve your training season. The first step is becoming aware, so you’ve already been there, done that. Let’s move on the step two and see if any of these apply to you.

Progression load. It can be tempting to improve the progression rate or volume of your training when your goal is to improve, but if you do so without a proper base to support the load increase, it can drain you. When trying to improve time, it’s best to change volume and intensity workloads based on your training recipe and what’s worked in the past, as well as where you were fitness-wise when you began the marathon-training season.

For instance, if you ran a 3:50 marathon last year training on four days per week and two 20-mile long runs, you could improve that by adding in speed workouts and progressive cutback runs. Some try to add a lot more 20-milers or 20+ milers to the mix, thinking they’ll cover the distance more efficiently, but it can end up draining you. If you dramatically changed your training plan or added a lot more to your core plan, this may be causing your body to break down. The good news is it’s not too late, as you can revamp, modify and make more gradual improvements this season to allow your body time to adapt and get stronger.

The elements. It’s no secret that it’s harder to train in the heat, and the country has been in a heat wave the past few weeks. Training for long-distance events in extreme heat can suck the life out of you and require a lot more recovery. Take a look at when your symptoms started. If that timing correlates to the heat wave, your tiredness may be due to chronic dehydration, heat-related stress, and general fatigue from the greater demands of training in the heat. I’ve shared three ways to train safely in a heat wave here and nine tips for keeping your cool here.

Training by pace. My coaching philosophy is based on training by the body rather than by pace because when you listen to your body, you’re in the optimal training zone for the purpose of the day’s workout. Training is about doing strategically placed, purposeful workouts in a progression to apply just enough stress to the body that it adapts and gains fitness. Often the missing link in training plans is tailoring it to your body, your life, and your fitness.

If you’re training by a calculated pace based on a formula or a race you did four weeks ago, you’re likely to over- or under-train, as your body is never in the same place daily. It’s like guessing the winning lottery numbers. The body knows effort not pace. For example, a common mistake I see runners make with long runs is to base them on planned finish time or just bump them up faster than last year’s training pace because the goal is to improve. That’s fine until you start running in your anaerobic zone because of the heat, lack of sleep, or the fact that it’s early in the season, and your fitness doesn’t support the planned pace. You end up struggling to finish or completely wiped out when you do. If you continue on this trend you can accumulate too much stress and end up in a continual state of fatigue, unable to recover from the greater demands of training along the way. One sign that you’ve overdone it is if the fatigue doesn’t subside after a few weeks.

It’s actually easier if you let go of pace as a guide and run with the flow of your body and the purpose of the day’s workout. If your plan calls for a Tempo Run, the goal is to run at a sustained effort at—or slightly above—your threshold. That is not based on a pace but a metabolic system in your body. If you train by the purpose of the workout, your pace will vary throughout the season (that’s the fun part). Read How to Run a Tempo Run in the Heat. The goal is to train first by the purpose of the workout, and then by the body. Let your pace be the outcome of the workout. That way, you can have fun watching your body progress as you run longer, cover the miles more quickly, and become comfortable with how varied pace can be day to day and week to week.

Sleep, rest, fuel and life stress. When you’re asking your body to train hard for a marathon, all of the other variables need to be in balance to support your efforts. Elite athletes are known to sleep 10-12 hours a day, plus a nap! They treat sleep as a recovery tool and invest in it to perform at their best. When your body is lacking quality sleep, fatigue is the first symptom, followed by other negative consequences like hormone imbalance, which can dramatically affect your energy, health, and performance down the road. Your body will require more sleep when training for a marathon. Train like an elite runner, and invest in getting your Z’s.

Getting in enough complete rest days and easy running days is also key. I was shocked to learn that an elite runner friend of mine ran 8:30 pace for his easy recovery runs—that’s a whopping 3+ minutes slower than his harder running efforts. If you run your easy days too hard (which is very easy to do), you don’t recover and carry that fatigue forward to your next workout. Running with a slower friend and cross-training at easy-to-moderate efforts are great ways to assure you’re truly going easy enough and bridging the gap between your long and harder runs. Invest in at least one complete rest day weekly to balance the demands of expenditure with restoration. This is especially true for those that lead busy, hectic lives.

Lack of calories is a biggie when it comes to energy drain. Take an inventory of your expenditure by using a free log like Fitday.com, and make sure to refuel with enough calories via high-quality carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Everyone has a unique metabolic system, and what works for me may not work for you. This is why keeping a log for a month will help you tune into how much energy you need, identify the balance of ingredients (carbs, proteins, fats), and allow you to see whether your recipe is fueling you well. You can also experience the same energy drain if you’re not taking in what your body runs well on. For instance, some do well on a traditional higher carbohydrate diet (C-60%/ P-25%/F-15%), while others shine with a mixed diet and a more equal blend (C-40%/P-30%/F-30%). Keep track, tune into your body, and take note of your energy and emotions after you eat. It’s an easy and effective way to find out what kind of fuel your body prefers.

Whether you’re starting a new job, in the middle of a snarky divorce, or moving, life stress has an effect on your overall health and requires energy to navigate through it. As best you can, try to eliminate the drama and stress from your life. Sometimes just identifying what drains you is enough to motivate you to remove it from your life. If it’s inevitable stress, find other ways to reduce the toll on your body (sleep, down days, fewer running days, meditation). The idea is to remove the environmental stress to make room for the demands of your training.

Read the label. Take a look at the side effects of any medications you’re taking. Some list fatigue and other unfortunate side effects that, when blended with a demanding marathon training season, can suck the life out of you and your legs. It is also common for endurance athletes (especially women) to have low iron, folate, and other B vitamin levels which can have a profound effect on your energy levels and life performance overall. In many cases this can be resolved by a properly balanced diet and adequate caloric consumption. Some runners need to take additional supplements to achieve balance. The key is to know what you’re putting in your body, go with clean foods with few ingredients, and your body will reward you with improved health and energy.

Finally, you’ll be surprised at what you can accomplish by tuning into your body and life. You may find it’s as simple as changing your focus from pace to effort or adding a few hundred more calories to your day. The great news is you identified the fatigue, reached out for help and guidance, and now have the tools to assess why you’re feeling this way. In many cases, with a few tweaks to your routine, you’ll be back up and running at 100% in a matter of days or weeks.

A bloggers treat.

General day to day ramblings

Want a time machine, run with friends.

18 February bigkevmatthews@gmail.com 0 Comment

This morning for the obligatory Sunday long run we were joined by another running group who tend to run North, while we always seem to run South. When asked why they did this we were told to avoid us ? I assumed they were joking but Will seemed quite sure and he is a high ranking Police Office so he’d never lie would he? Anyhow, all joking aside (he was joking surely) we all set off together and headed South with a 25k goal distance in mind. Doing a count in my head, as I type this post, there must have been 13 of us with Bart’s joining us later on the return trip . ( I can only assume he’d been celebrating his horses third podium finish in a row!) We all decided it was to be a relaxed long run but when you find yourself at the front of a pack of runners you tend to up the pace for fear of getting either trampolined on or verbally abused for running too slow. There isn’t the peloton mentality in running and running in a pack is a difficult thing to judge, pace wise. As it was we got to halfway which coincided with a drink stop and then there was the obligatory race for home as the group splintered into the ‘relaxed Sunday long run’ and the first to the waffles wins ! This is why the Sunday long run nearly always becomes a progressive. Throw in the T-train and it’s on for young and old at a very early point in the run normally. (Luckily Tone was over east doing secret Army stuff, but you didn’t hear that from me!)

Right the point of this post is because of the new additions to the group I reckon we got to halfway before we had even finished the first few rounds of conversations which ranged from goal races, upcoming races, injuries, Evan’s eating habits (that took the best part of the first 10k truth per told!), why we do what we do and even what would happen if the world suddenly ended and we only had this running group to repopulate the planet. (Note, this was a nod towards the diverse careers encompassed within the group and less about repopulating the planet) This was a difficult conversation but in the end we all agreed we’d probably make Jeff do most of the work and we’d all supervise, in a nice way of course.

As soon as we turned the pace increased and it wasn’t long before everybody dialled in their own finishing times and set about achieving their own personal goals. For me it was the end of a long week and I managed to stumble home with a respectable average pace and a 147km total for the week. (I’m assuming I won’t be allowed out to play again today.) Everybody followed , all happy with their long run ticked off and time for waffles, coffee and even more conversation.

Unfortunately today this was not to be as someone had selfishly organised a sand running carnival and Clancys’ , the local cafe of choice, was packed and getting busier the more we hung around. Hard as it is to even type this I had to return home without coffee or waffles. This is probably the first time this has happened in many years and will not be occurring again. Lesson learnt , if there is an event at your local beach/car park etc. make alternative arrangements for the post-run refreshments. Sunday long runs without waffles or pancakes, what is the world coming too?

Finally I have attached a post of happier times when we got pancakes at Clancy’s in the pre-waffle days (I think?). These were glory days of probably one of the best pancakes in Perth on offer at the end of the Sunday long run. Another highlight of todays run was some credible information regrading another venue that serves good pancakes and coffee and is only just over 12k from Clancy’s. Did I mention food is another topic high on the list that is discussed on long runs but only after the halfway point and really as late in the run as possible as a finish surge , fuelled by pancake talk, with 12k to go normally ends badly for all. !

Right all this talk of food has made me hungry, (funny that.) I’m off for a cup off tea and few ginger biscuits, to be dunked and then eaten whole, the joys of a long distance runner.

Want to run faster and further, go make some friends.

You really do need friends on Sundays.

Sunday morning is the traditional long run for myself and my running brothers (and in todays case a sister, thanks for bringing some decorum to our group Jules.) It is after said run we get to do what I run for basically, eat sugar disguised as either pancakes, waffles or muffins all washed down with a good Cappacino, People ask me what I enjoy most about running and to me , and it must be said most of the running group, it’s the post-long run (or the Thursday Yolo progressive) ‘tukka’ and conversation. Admittedly living in Perth we are spoilt rotten when it comes to the scenery we play in and the weather as a whole. In Winter it may be dark and rain (once in a blue moon) but it’s rarely cold and I’ve never not ran because of the conditions. There’s been a few times when we’ve all sat in our cars as a ‘squall’ passed over but it’s normally pretty quick and I’ve never had a run I regretted. As we move into spring in Perth we really are blessed with near perfect running conditions and today was no exception. As a few of us (myself included) are racing Rottnest next week the run was to be a 20k , time on legs, easy run. More about the banter afterwards than a hard session, all the hard work has been done and we are in taper mode.

It is to be noted there were a few runners in our group who find it difficult to run slow, Zac and Ross being the main culprits, so we gave Damo’ (front row, far left) the task of grabbing pole position and slowing the pace down. This lasted about 1k before Damo’ failed in his task spectacularly and blew up big time. Unfortunately it was then on for young and old as the pace dropped from the planned 5min/k pace down to the low 4:30min/k very quickly. This continued to the half way point with much grumbling from the back runners including myself. At halfway though I suddenly felt a second wind and decided to put in 5k of MP (marathon pace) before slipping back to a more respectable pace as I stumbled towards City Beach and waffles. It’s been a long few weeks of quality training so my 5k of MP was never really going to happen. In the end I settled for 4k of ‘near MP’ and then a drink stop, while I waited for the group to catch up.

In the end Jeff and Ben came running past and I joined them briefly for the next hill before setting off alone again drawn to the waffles and coffee that awaited me at City Beach. In the end my overall average was 4:22min/k for 20k but more importantly I felt relaxed and enjoyed the hit out. Without doubt though the best part was the first 10k and the company. The kilometres really do pass so quickly when you run with friends as you have a week of ‘man stuff’ to catch up on. Being mostly a male dominated group we don’t tend to speak in the week unless we run together and we have found ‘What’s App’ now so all runs are organised online. Actually running together forces conversation, a lost art these days it seems, also if you know me you know I like to talk, so without company I struggle with distance.

Today was no different and we chatted like long lost friends , well it had been a week, about all the latest ‘stuff’, I would try and be more specific but it really can be anything and everything. The main topic is normally running related of course, about upcoming races, who just ran what and in what time is always high on the agenda, new shoes (a very topical topic at the moment with the Nike arrivals) and when will the 2 hour marathon be broken and will anybody from my group do it? Either way the time ticks along nicely and a long run can be over before you know it, well maybe not that quick but certainly a lot quicker than running solo. Back in the day I use to do my long runs alone and boy when you ain’t in the mood, and you start counting K’s early, you are in for along day at the office. I had a 34k run from my house to the end of the bike path at Burns beach and back as my ‘last long run of choice‘ before a marathon and most times it was a killer. I remember the last time I ran it I was counting kilometres very early and the run just seemed to drag on for ever as I slowed with every K. Mentally I was finished before I started and I have had so many bad runs on that route but still perceived , we’re a funny bunch runners?

Different story with the current day ‘BK posse’ , the long runs are more bearable and dare I say ‘enjoyable’, well as ‘enjoyable’ as a long run can be. The conversation and shared suffering helps, maybe it the shared suffering that really helps. Watching your fellow runner in as much pain as you makes your suffering seem a little easier, I say that in a nice way of course? That’s not to say every long run is painful but when you’re in the middle of a training block for a marathon, I’m sorry people, you need to spend some time in the pain box, with or without your running buddies. Maybe it is the ‘problem shared is a problem halved type ‘ scenario but with pain and suffering, I’m not sure but it just works. Nothing I enjoy more than seeing my running buddies in pain, again in a nice way?

Some competitive rivalry is also useful within the group as it spurs on good performances. In our group at the moment most of the runners had ran a sub3 marathon with the exception of Gareth, Jeff and Mark L. Mark C. was a member of this group but with the help of a one-on-one training plan from Matt Fitzgerald ( http://www.mattfitzgerald.com in Matt we trust! ) had gone from just over 3 hours to a 2:55 and then a 2:48 in the last few months. (fuelled on carbs!) Mark L. was desperate to enter the sub3 club and did so last weekend with a second place finish at the Bussleton Marathon and a 2:57 finish. Give Mark L. his due he had been taking a severe ‘ribbing’ since missing out on the sub3 target at the Perth City-to-Surf ,which was well short. (Even his Mum joined in.) This time there was no mistake. So instantly the mantra of ‘not ran a sub 3‘ falls to Gareth, Jeff has a get out of jail card as he is well over 100 years old and thus , age adjusted , has actually ran sub2; probably sub1 truth be told !!

I read a great article recently written by Matt Fitzgerald , In Men’s Journal, as he documented the top 5 things he learnt from training with the elites for the recent Chicago marathon, where we ran his target time of sub 2:40. One of the top 5 tips was train with people of similar abilities and goals. I wonder if Matt would have been so sure if he’d met my bunch of running reprobates, interesting , maybe we’ll get him over to sunny Perth one day for a Sunday long run, I just hope he can keep up with the banter as he’ll have no troubler keeping up with the pace , especially if we can get Damo’ to the front albeit briefly ?

Do the Little Things

Fitzgerald says that training goes beyond, well, training. “Carve out time to work on your strength and mobility limitations,” he says. “Do form drills, get a massage, use a foam rollerand so forth. Your workouts will go further if you support them with ancillary activities.”

Listen to Your Body

One aspect of pro training that really hit home with Fitzgerald was the willingness of the elites to cut a workout short or even take a day off if something was hurting. This is something most amateurs are loath to do, opting instead to stick it out and do the work on their training plans. Often, it sinks their ships. “This ‘live-to-fight-another-day’ mentality reduces the risk of injury and overtraining,” he says.

Train With People Who Have Similar Abilities and Goals

“You’ll benefit more from your training if you surround yourself with athletes who can pull you along on their good days and whom you can push on your bad days,” Fitzgerald says. If you don’t have ready training partners, seek them out via your local running club or shoe store.

Spend More Time at an Easy Pace:

Fitzgerald says that most amateurs run their easy runs too hard. “Most pros spend 80 percent of their runs at low intensity,” he explains, “but too many recreational runners fail to truly dial back.” Make easy pace your respected friend unless you’re out to do speed work, realizing it will establish a base to carry you through long term.

Scale Properly

While there’s much that amateurs can adopt from the pros, Fitzgerald points out that unless they scale it to their own level, it will be too much to handle. “Few amateur runners can or should run 100 miles per week, for example,” he says. “but they can and should run a good deal relative to their personal limits if they want to get the most out of their God-given ability.” That said, Fitzgerald reminds every-day runners that some pros take risks that shouldn’t be emulated. “They might train or compete injured — risks you shouldn’t take if your livelihood doesn’t depend on your performance.”

Funnily enough Matt forgot to mention Yelo muffins, maybe he ain’t as knowledgable as we first thought…? (Gareth, Mike, yours truely and the infamous Mark Lee.)

General day to day ramblings

Fatigue is the predecessor to success.

15 February bigkevmatthews@gmail.com 0 Comment

Since the Australia Day Ultra at the end of January I’ve been putting in some serious kilometres as I get myself ready for the marathon season ahead. (see Strava extract below) This is the foundation part of the year where it is all about time on feet and building a good base from which to add pace as we near a ‘goal’ race. For me it will either be the Perth Marathon in June (my 13th Perth marathon) or if I feel good earlier there is the Bunbury Marathon in April. (my 5th Bunbury marathon) Of course after that there is my 10th City to Surf Marathon and being part of a small group of 26 runners who have run all 10 it will be the highlight of the year for me. After that there is the Rottnest Marathon (my 12th Rottnest) and finally the 6 Inch Ultra in December (my 10th 6 inch). Throw in 3-5 half marathons and at least another 10-12 races and my season is complete.

Some people run for the pure joy of running but for me I need a goal race to work towards and a time to compete against, this is why I get up early , go to be early and generally lead a nomadic existence. Frowned upon by most, including most of my running peers, but it works for me and even when I’m totally fatigued I can see light at the end of the tunnel and always assume it’s not an on coming train, so far I’ve always been right!

Today summed up my training this year. A 14k progressive with the lads this morning where my legs were ‘goosed’ at the start and even though I managed a good progressive it was a lot slower than my best (thanks for that Strava.) I’m not worried though as this is the required building period I need before giving away distance to pace later in the season. To this end I ran a 10k DanceETC loop in the evening and struggled around , albeit with a fast finish. Again the legs had very little and I’ll crawl into bed feeling very tired (see quote from Brendan Foster below). This is marathon training, it really is just a slog truth be told and the more you can put up with in the building phase the better the end result. Eventually though you do need to break the shackles and boredom of distance and change through the gears into pace and shorter , sharper training runs. This is when the magic happens and the legs should welcome the change, add in the cardio fitness of all those hours on your feet and you can suddenly see why you run. Put a bib on your chest, sit back and enjoy the ride, welcome to racing and beating your best.

I’ve added a post I wrote in 2017 on fatigue which stills holds true so worth a revisit, in the meantime the bed is calling and after todays runs it is certainly where I want to be. Can’t wait to wake up tired tomorrow morning and start the whole process again.

Fatigue, I embrace it like a long lost friend.

Fatigue needs to be embraced.

I’ve mentioned before a quote from Brendan Foster below…

Brendan Foster Quote.

As I said in an earlier post I actually turn that quote around as in my experience I got to bed tired and wake up really tired. Maybe that’s why I’m not an international athlete ? This morning was no exception, at 4:50am I was in no mood to run my go-to 10k ‘old faithful’ for the 170th time (thanks Strava https://www.strava.com/activities/776584306 ) My old friend fatigue had come to visit and I could feel the legs were none too impressed as I set off on my morning 10k. As with most morning runs I soon got into the groove and plodded along enjoying the morning ambience and reveling in the sunrise as I cruised through Star Swamp. When I finally finished I had sneaked under 5min/k average for the distance and even raised my VO2 score , so all-in-all a good result.

Walking to work, after a quick coffee stop at my favourite café, I climbed my indicator stairs to get a feel of how my legs were feeling. The stair test is a good test as if you are fatigued you will feel it as you ascend, especially if you go two at a time. This morning I could feel climbing the stairs was a challenge and again the legs were complaining from the start. Fatigue had come calling.

The second week after a marathon you are still in recovery mode so I am not surprised I am feeling fatigued, I would be more worried if I wasn’t as this would mean I could have run faster. (Trust me, I could not have run faster at the World Masters 10 days ago.) So fatigue in this case is a good thing, it just needs to be managed. By managed I mean as an indicator it is telling me to keep on doing what I’m doing, which is recovery pace only. I’ll feel better when I run lunch time (I can’t not run twice a day, that would be silly.) and I actually improve throughout the day. That’s why I turn Brendan Foster’s quote around.

This brings me to the main reason for this post. With fatigue being more prevalent for me at the start of the day I know to make this run the easiest. My lunch time run I know I’ll feel better so can use this one for any harder workouts. Other people feel differently (International athletes apparently?) and would go harder in the mornings. As with all things running it is a personal thing. I sometimes wonder why I wrote this blog as I am sharing things that work for me but you need to be aware these are my personal findings, as long as you realise that and adjust for your training all is good. I’ve said before most of the topics I discuss are all common sense, I don’t pertain to be a exercise guru, just a runner who loves running and has had some success (at my low level) who also enjoys typing.

As with all things I discuss I have added an article to help or support my ramblings and surprise surprise its my old mate coach Jeff from Runners Connect.

Why Fatigue is a Necessary Part of Training and How to Manage It

Training is like trying to walk a tight rope. You need to balance putting in grueling workouts and mileage with the ability to let your body recover. Favor one aspect too heavily and you’ll either have a poor performance from lack of training or get injured and overtrained from doing too much.

That’s why learning how to manage fatigue, and understanding the role it plays in endurance training, is critical to improving as a runner. In this article, we’re going to outline why a certain amount of fatigue is necessary to improve as a runner, how to strategically implement it, and how to find the right balance.

Why fatigue is necessary

The basis for all training theory is the what we call the workout and recovery process. Running first breaks down your muscle fibers. The harder you run, the more muscle fibers you damage. Your body then works to rebuild these damaged muscle fibers and if the recovery process goes well, these muscle fibers are repaired stronger than before. That’s how you become faster and stronger through training.

But, as you may realize, it’s nearly impossible to fully recover from a workout in 24 hours. It might be possible following a very easy day of running, but any type of speed, tempo or long run is going to require anywhere from 2 to 14 days to fully absorb and recover (here’s a breakdown of what research says about how long it takes to recover from different workout types).

That means, unless you want to only run two or three times per week, training while fatigued is a necessary part of training; especially since we know slow, easy mileage is the best way to build aerobic endurance and is the foundation for running performance. The trick is finding that balance between running enough miles to build you aerobic capacity without overdoing the fatigue.

Herein lies the “art” of training.

However, there is also a way that we can utilize this fatigue to make your training more effective.

How to utilize fatigue to run faster

In training vernacular, coaches use a term called “accumulated fatigue”. Basically, this theory posits that fatigue from one workout accumulates and transfers to the next run so that you’re always starting a workout or a long run a little tired from your previous training.

This is important for longer distance races like the marathon because it’s nearly impossible to run the full distance of the race in daily training. Furthermore, if you were to start every workout fully recovered and fresh, it would be difficult to simulate how your body feels late into a race.

As such, we can strategically implement the theory of accumulated fatigue to better target the specific demands of your race.

For example, during marathon training, one of my favorite methods for introducing accumulated fatigue is to buttress the long run against a shorter, but steady paced run the day before. As an illustration, you would run six miles at marathon pace on the Saturday before your Sunday long run. Because of the harder running on Saturday, you start Sunday’s long run not at zero miles, but rather at six or eight miles, since that is the level of fatigue and glycogen depletion your body is carrying over from the previous run.

You can even apply this theory to 5k training. Using what we know about muscle fibers and the recruitment and fatigue ladder, I often have athletes run a short, explosive hill workout (something like 9 x 60 second hills at 5k pace) two days before a 5k specific workout (12 x 400 at 5k pace with 60 second quick jog rest). The hill session fatigues and depletes the fast twitch muscle fibers so that during the 5k specific work, your intermediary Type IIa muscle fibers (the ones primarily responsible for running at 5k pace) have to handle more work and thus are more specifically targeted.

How to find the right balance

Training would be much easier – and runners much happier – if you could just train hard and fatigued all the time. But, you can’t simply continue to accumulate fatigue and run these types of workouts all the time (although some runners certainly do try). There needs to be a balance.

First, try to keep the specific accumulated fatigue workouts to once every two weeks and only schedule them during the race-specific portion of your training schedule. This ensures that you don’t overdo it and that you don’t get burnt out long-term.

Be sure to keep your easy runs slow. One of the most common mistakes runners make is running their easy day mileage too fast. This hinders your ability to recover and doesn’t provide any additional aerobic benefit. Research has shown that the most optimal aerobic pace for an easy run is about 65 percent of 5k pace. For a 20-minute 5k runner (6:25 pace for 5k – 7:20 pace marathoner), this would mean about 8:40 per mile on easy days.

Finally, don’t be afraid to take a down or rest week every five to six weeks where you reduce mileage by 65 to 75 percent and reduce the intensity of your workouts. These down weeks help you fully recover from and absorb previous weeks and months of training so that fatigue doesn’t build-up too much.

Hopefully, this lesson on fatigue and how you manage it will help you train more intelligently for your upcoming races.

Footnote : Managed a 10k run in Kings Park over some hilly terrain and trails lunch time. Felt a lot better than this morning as expected so will look forward to the alarm tomorrow morning as I’m running with my friend Mark Lee who is a lot quicker than me and more of a short distance specialist. Only saving grace is we meet at Yelo so the obligatory coffee and muffin will be dangled as reward for the beating he’ll probably give me. On the downside I think it’s my turn to pay…

Makes everything seem so much better, chocolate and banana muffin and decent coffee. Life is good…..

General day to day ramblings

Writers block so lets recycle some older posts.

08 February bigkevmatthews@gmail.com 0 Comment

I seem to be going through a ‘writers block’ stage in my blogging career at the moment and this has coincided with a period of ‘lost mojo’ running wise. Needless to say I’m not a very happy runner. Today I was beaten back by the heat on my lunchtime run and thought I’d pen a few words about the experience. Due to my writers block I have decided to recycle a post from 2016 so there is a good chance most of you didn’t read this the first time around. It’s worth a revisit even if you were lucky to read the original by the way. My posts, like a good wine, get better with age.

In Perth at the moment we are heading towards summer and believe me when I say in Perth we get a summer big time ! Living in what is essentially a desert does have it’s advantages. For nine months of the year I consider the climate to be just about perfect for running. A reasonable temperature with little humidity and even less rain. When it does rain it feels like a warm shower compared to the horizontal ‘take out your eyes’ sleet I use to experience in the Scottish summers I came from. (Apparently it’s worse in winter but I never found out as it was too dark , too cold and too damn dangerous to ever wonder outside.) When Summer does arrive you can still run in good conditions you just need to adjust your day. You need to awake at first light and race the sunrise before the Perth sauna is turned on and anyone found outside understands what it feels like to be cooked in a microwave. If you’re lucky you may get a reprieve in the late evening but when summer comes a calling you may only get that small pre-sunrise window of opportunity.

Runners though like to run and not be dictated to by temperature or season, thus sometimes they just put on the trainers regardless and brave the elements; after first bathing in suntan crème. When you are faced with anything over 30c it’s time to rethink your run. Pace needs to go out the window and in comes survival and damage limitation. Believe me I’ve been there when you’re halfway through a 10k loop and suddenly realise you’re dehydrated and the body has had enough. It’s not pleasant and it always happens when you are at your furthest from any help. (Funny that?) It’s at times like these you need to just knuckle down and plough on, albeit slowly with walk breaks if needed. The most important thing is getting back to the start in one piece without doing to much damage, both mentally and physically.

So what’s the answer ? Running in the heat can improve your running and even make you stronger but there are certain aspects of your run that need to be adapted. As well as running slower you must also be fully hydrated, common sense I know but still worth highlighting. This hydration process is also best started the day before the run and continued up to the run and while running, and of course afterwards. Basically drink, a lot ! I would also recommend electrolytes rather than just water , it all helps.

For me in Perth at the moment I’m out the door and running by 4:50am and although that may sound early the rewards so outweigh the early start. I get to see the sunrise every morning and also enjoy the solitude of the early morning. Everything is so much quieter and you really can bask in the new dawn. The downside of course is after I put my nine year old to bed I scuttle off to my bed myself to eagerly awake my alarm informing me I get to race the sunrise again . My Wife , who luckily is a night owl, gets her ‘Karen time’ so all is good in the Matthews household. (Spending too much time with my Wife always put a strain on the marriage. That was a joke by the way.!) So for summer move your waking day to the left and rise early, enjoy the morning before sneaking off to bed while most people are sitting down wasting their lives watching rubbish on TV and eating ‘crap’. You know it makes sense, I’ll see you out there.

Footnote. I took my own advice for a change and rather than put myself through the sauna that is lunch time running I waited until the evening and ran a pleasant 10k racing the sunset, after racing the sunrise this morning. Both glorious runs for different reasons and so much more pleasant than a lunch time run when I would have been battling the higher temperatures and returning to work looking I’d been swimming while wearing my work clothes. So, as pointed out in the articles below, you just need to choose your time wisely when it comes to running in heat, best to avoid it really but if it is unavoidable make the best of it.

I have found two great articles below that explain how running in the heat can help to improve ones running and with the right tweaks can also be as enjoyable as running in normal conditions.

One of the highest sweat rates ever recorded was that of marathon runner Alberto Salazar at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. In the months leading up to the games, which were expected to be oppressively hot, the marathoner was put through a regimen of temperature acclimation training with the goal of helping him adapt to running in the heat. While Salazar placed only 15th overall, the program was deemed a success, physiologically speaking—vitals taken after the race found that Salazar’s hormonal and thermoregulatory systems were completely normal. His body had compensated by causing him to sweat at an incredibly high rate—about three liters per hour, compared to the roughly one liter per hour for an average human.

Researchers have been looking at the effects of heat on athletic performance for decades, and their results have been consistently surprising. Studies have found that, in addition to an increased rate of perspiration, training in the heat can increase an athlete’s blood plasma volume (which leads to better cardiovascular fitness), reduce overall core temperature, reduce blood lactate, increase skeletal muscle force, and, counterintuitively, make a person train better in cold temperatures. In fact, heat acclimation may actually be more beneficial than altitude training in eliciting positive physiological adaptations, says Santiago Lorenzo, a professor of physiology at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine and a former decathlete at the University of Oregon. “Heat acclimation provides more substantial environmental specific improvements in aerobic performance than altitude acclimation,” he says. And in contrast to the live low, train high philosophy, we more quickly adapt to heat stress than we do to hypoxia. In other words, heat training not only does a better job at increasing V02 max than altitude, but it also makes athletes better at withstanding a wider range of temperatures.

Athletes can adapt to heat in one of two ways. The first is through incremental improvements in tolerance over time—work out in the heat a little bit every day, and eventually your body will dissipate heat more effectively. The second way is through thermotolerance, which is a cellular adaptation to an extreme heat experience, like suffering such severe dehydration after a run that you need an IV. Essentially, if you shock your system, your body will be able to withstand greater temperature stresses later on. But successful heat adaptation is difficult—and clearly dangerous—to achieve outside of controlled settings. Lorenzo explains that performance gains are possible only when athletes elevate their core body temperature, and without careful monitoring, it’s possible to elevate your core temperature to lethal levels.

When performed safely, however, heat training can have extraordinary effects. This phenomena fascinates Chris Minson, a professor of human physiology at the University of Oregon, who studies heat acclimation responses in athletes. According to his research, heat training can expand blood plasma volume, but Minson says there also seem to be inexplicable changes to the heart’s left ventricle, which helps to increase oxygen delivery to the muscles. In addition, he says that athletes who train in warm temperatures generally get better at regulating heat by sweating earlier, as Salazar did, or developing a colder resting body temperature.

A 2011 study by a group of researchers in New Zealand also found that overall volume of blood plasma increased at a greater rate when athletes did not drink water during exercise. While some coaches are carefully experimenting with dehydration, Minson and Lorenzo are not because it adds too much additional stress. However, they do say that this type of training can be beneficial because it produces a higher number of “heat shock” protein cells.

Ahead of Western States this June, ultrarunning coach Jason Koop worked on heat training with Amanda Basham and eventual winner Kaci Leckteig. Koop believes this type of acclimating is a good example of blending an academic concept with real-world training. But, says Koop, “at a certain level, you have to compromise training quality for the heat acclimation. Acclimating to the heat is additional stress [on the body], just like more miles or intervals, so you can’t simply pile it on. Something on the training side has to give.”

One method of heat acclimation that Minson uses with his athletes is to do hard workouts on colder days or earlier in the morning, and then start training in hotter conditions with less intensity. He is also looking into adding heat in ways that wouldn’t require an athlete to train in high temperatures at all—using hot tubs, for instance.

All this being said, not everyone responds to heat at the same rate or with the same physiological gains, which makes it similar to altitude training in that it might make a high-performing age grouper, college athlete, or elite a little better, but it won’t compensate for intelligent, consistent training.

How to Incorporate Heat Acclimation into Your Training Schedule

When acclimating to heat, you’ll be forced to compromise training quality, says Koop. While he understands the benefits of heat acclimation, he still prioritizes smart, solid training. But if you want to incorporate heat into your workouts, here’s how he recommends doing it safely.

First, pick a protocol (sauna, hot bath, or exercising in the heat) that minimizes the impact on training, both physically and logistically.

Koop most commonly recommends that his athletes use a dry sauna immediately after running. “It doesn’t impact training nearly as much as running in the heat, and the effects are similarly positive,” he says. He often tells his athletes to not drink water during these sessions to enhance the effect. Koop recommends spending 20-to-30-minutes in the sauna, depending on tolerance.

Koop says that when he has his athletes exercise in the heat—either naturally or by wearing extra clothing to simulate the experience—it will be on a long, slow day for 60 to 90 minutes. The time completely depends on the athlete’s tolerance and previous experience. But he stresses to not do this on a recovery day, because heat training is an added stress on the body. Koop recommends drinking 30 to 40 ounces of an electrolyte drink per hour during these sessions And for safety, he advises using low-traffic sidewalks and bike paths—not trails.

Despite the benefits of heat training, Koop reminds his athletes that running in the heat is extremely difficult and usually replaces a hard day. “You are substituting one potential gain for another one,” he says. In other words, use it carefully

One more article , this time by Jason Fitzgerald from Strength Training. ( http://strengthrunning.com/about/ ) A great read.

Summer training ain’t easy. With skyrocketing temperatures, high humidity, and scorching sun it can feel like it’s impossible to get in a good run.

A long run or fast workout is hard enough. What about a RACE? Like a friend of mine always says: In the heat, I don’t compete!

Even if you just run easy and skip the hard workouts, how are you even supposed to just feel good when running in the heat and humidity of summer?

In the last few weeks, the runners I coach have said some funny things about running in the heat. My favorite:

“I just got back from my 8-miler, and it was BRUTAL. I couldn’t do the workout… my body just isn’t ready for 90 degrees “feels like 95” at 6pm. I just tried to repeat to myself “I LOVE SUMMER!” while also being glad I wasn’t jumping over piles of snow.”

Training well through the heat and humidity of summer takes a careful approach that combines timing, gear, and an understanding of why exactly it’s so damn hard to run in the heat in the first place.

But of course, it will still be tough. A few weeks ago at the Heartbreak Hill Festival put on by Runner’s World, I was talking to another runner about a race she ran in Miami. She was lucky to meet Kara Goucher and Shalane Flanagan (two pro distance runners), who told her: “I’ll take running at altitude over running in Miami any day!”

Even the pros hate summer running!

Instead of complaining about how difficult it is to run in the heat, let’s see how we can make the best of it. And maybe even make the fall our fastest season yet.

Why is it So Hard to Run in the Heat?

If you’ve read Christopher McDougall’s fantastic book Born to Run, you’ll remember that humans are amazing endurance animals for a host of reasons. We have:

A huge Achilles tendon that produces a significant energy return while running.

A (mostly) hairless body and highly evolved sweat system

Big butts. I cannot lie: according to Harvard professor Daniel Lieberman, our glutes are “running muscles”

A special ligament that attaches the spine to the skull and keeps our head from bobbing as we run

Can you guess which adaptation here is impacted by running in the summer? It’s our incredible sweat system.

Perspiration helps cool us off because as our sweat evaporates from your skin, it takes heat with it. But when humidity rises, it reduces your body’s evaporation rate because there’s already so much water in the air. Soon, you feel overheated and have to slow down.

If you live in an arid place like Colorado where the humidity is low, a hot summer day can still wreak havoc on your training for two important reasons.

First, the dry air evaporates sweat from your body almost as quickly as you’re producing it so you can become dehydrated much more quickly. If you start a run slightly dehydrated or run long without any fluids, your performance will significantly decrease (and you’ll feel like death).

As you become more and more dehydrated throughout a run, your heart needs to work harder to pump your blood because it’s becoming thicker (among a few other reasons too). This is called cardiac drift: your heart rate increases over the course of a run even when the intensity stays the same.

Let’s not also forget the heat and sun, both of which increase your core body temperature. As soon as you start getting too warm, running will feel much more difficult. Your “Rate of Perceived Exertion” (RPE) will increase even if you’re running a pace that’s usually comfortable.

Less evaporation because of higher humidity levels, increased chance of dehydration, and a higher core body temperature means that you’ll have to run slower to maintain the same effort. An unfortunate reality of summer training.

The Dangers of Running in the Heat

This article isn’t meant to scare you. After nearly 16 years of competitive racing and running in the heat and humidity of New England and the mid-Atlantic states, I’ve never been seriously affected by the heat in any meaningful way. Neither has any of my teammates in college and high school – and we raced and ran very tough workouts in brutal temperatures sometimes.

But that doesn’t mean the dangers aren’t real. If you run too hard at noon in July, you might experience some type of heat illness. Here’s what you need to know so you can avoid these setbacks.

Heat Cramps: muscle spasms that are caused by large fluid and electrolyte losses from sweating. They can occur while exercising but also hours after your run. No need to worry, they’re not serious – but make sure you stay hydrated and get enough electrolytes with sports drinks or fruit like bananas.

Severe dehydration: we’re all familiar with dehydration. Up to a 4% loss in fluid levels from exercise is still safe, but any more than that and you may experience dizziness, fatigue, and even mental disorientation.

Prevent this level of dehydration by starting your run already hydrated (your pee should be a straw color) and replacing your lost fluids as soon as you finish running. You can figure out exactly how much fluid you’ve lost by weighing yourself before and after a hot run.

Heat Exhaustion: if you work out too hard in the heat, you may come down with heat exhaustion – a case of dehydration, headache, nausea, and a core body temperature of up to 104 degrees. It’s much more common in runners who aren’t adapted to the heat.

If you think you have heat exhaustion, stop running, get out of the sun, and cool down with a cold drink and preferably air conditioning. And next time, run earlier in the day!

Heat Stroke: Danger! Heat stroke is very serious since your core body temperature is probably over 105 degrees. Symptoms include disorientation with clumsiness, confusion, poor balance, and a lack of sweating. Immediate medical attention is required where you’ll be cooled with a cold bath, air conditioning, and cold liquids.

At the 1978 Falmouth Road Race, Alberto Salazar (two-time winner of the NYC Marathon) suffered heat stroke and collapsed at the finish line after fading to the 10th place. He was rushed to the hospital with a temperature of 107 (!) degrees and read his last rites in a tub of ice water. He recovered and went on to become one of the greatest coaches our sport has ever seen.

7 Tips to Beat the Heat

The heat of summer isn’t the time to run your hardest workout and biggest mileage weeks – unless you’re super careful.

Run by effort, not pace. Running in the heat is the perfect opportunity to work on the skill of running by feel. Instead of strictly following pace targets that you might normally follow, run by time and effort rather than distance and pace.

Run early. There’s no perfect time to run in the heat of summer. But the early morning hours offer the lowest temperatures and a break from the strongest hours of sunlight (even though the humidity will be at its highest).

Get off the roads! Asphalt and concrete absorb heat and radiate it back onto your poor, wilting body. The summer months are a good time to try more trail running. Bonus: you have to run a little slower on trails which will keep you slightly cooler and trails are usually shaded. Win-win.

Adjust your expectations. If the National Weather Service issues a heat advisory (when the Heat Index, a score that reflects a combination of both heat and humidity, is over 105 degrees) running fast or long will be difficult and dangerous.

Even if there’s no heat advisory, remember why it’s so hard to run like you normally do in summer weather. Maintain the same effort and don’t sweat the slower paces (see what I did there?).

Don’t wear dark colors or cotton. Gear matters in extreme conditions so dress appropriately! Synthetic fabric like polyester is used in most running gear these days – use it.

Start your run hydrated (and keep hydrating). Even though hydration has been overemphasized in the last decade (see Waterlogged by Dr. Tim Noakes), it’s important to hydrate well before and after your run. Unless you’re running more than 75-90 minutes, you probably don’t need to take any water with you. But learn what works for you.

Plan your run around water. I never carry any fluid with me on a run – even a 20 miler in the summer. Instead, I run by fountains in public parks where I can swig some water and stay hydrated. If you live in a dry climate, running through sprinklers can help you stay cool, too. And who doesn’t love frolicking through a sprinkler?

Running in the Heat Has Its Advantages!

With all the whining we do about summer training, it actually makes you a better runner. Running in the heat causes our body to acclimatize to the conditions and adapt:

Your body gets better at sending blood from your core to your skin, helping to dissipate heat

With all that blood rushing to your skin, your muscles now get less oxygenated blood. So to compensate, your body produces more (who needs blood doping?!)

The body learns to control its core temperature and it won’t increase as much after you’ve acclimatized

You start sweating sooner at a lower body temperature to improve the cooling process

Sweat contains less salt so you maintain the right electrolyte balance

All these adaptations improve your efficiency and make you ready to run even faster as soon as the heat and humidity drop in the fall. So embrace the heat and run through it!

Then again, there’s some evidence that suggests that summer training is difficult because you think it will be difficult.

Yeah, tell me that after I shuffle home from a track workout in the sun and I might throw you out of my living room window.

But, it’s useful to know that at least some of the drudgery of running in the heat is because of our brain. It may present a good opportunity to “train your brain” to be comfortable being uncomfortable.

When you do, you’ll be in a good position to run a lot faster this fall. Take advantage of the physical AND mental adaptations you’ve gained from a summer of uncomfortable running.

You might just surprise yourself at what you’re able to run in a few months

Summer running , it can be positive.

General day to day ramblings,Marathons

Every runners needs a goal, otherwise you morph into a ‘jogger’ surely ?

29 January bigkevmatthews@gmail.com 0 Comment

One of the benefits of my blog continuing is once in a while I can retrieve a post I have written and use it as a filler on a new post. It this cheating , in a blogging sense, I’m not sure but can justify this practice as a lot of readers to the site are new and would probably have missed the post the first time round. Anyhow the post below describes the feeling all runners go through after successfully completing a ‘goal’ race, the ‘runners low’. After my insights into the runners low I have added an article on goal setting from one of my favourite runners Meb Keflezighi, whose book ‘Meb for mortals’ should be a staple diet for all runners. He is also a big Ellpitigo fan, albeit he is probably well paid to use the product.

I’ve got my Ellpitigo out of the garage for summer as I intend to use this as a new tool in my final push (?) for a sub 2:40 marathon at Perth in June this year. It’ll need to be perfect conditions but with the Elliptigo and a new pair of Nike Vaporflys 4% I hope to be in with a chance, being 51 in a few days this will be my last chance, surely?

Everybody talks about the runners high, this sense of euphoria one experiences when they cross the line at a major goal event. I’ve discussed what I feel it is, a sudden overwhelming sense of relief, or release, after you achieve something after putting yourself either under pressure or into the ‘pain box’. Anyway, after this ‘runners high’ you can sometimes come a cropper and experience what I term the ‘runners low’.

This feeling is the same in all sports and happens after achieving something you have worked so hard to do. There’s a classic scene (there are so many classic scenes in this movie of course.) in ‘Chariots of Fire’ when Harold Abrahams has just won the 100m gold and everybody else is celebrating while Harold himself is reserved and alone in the changing rooms. What Abrahams is struggling to come to terms with is success after so many years working towards that one 10 second race. All of a sudden he has no purpose, no target, no reason to do what he has been doing for so long. It must be daunting ?

The same can be true for us recreational marathon runners, albeit probably not as severe. Once we have completed the marathon and achieved the ‘runners high’ the next day all of sudden we have no goal. No reason to put in that early morning 5am start, no reason to double up or run a threshold until your lungs feel they are about to explode. There is no purpose after so many months of having something to achieve, a target to overcome. This feeling , coupled with the emotions of the previous few days of finishing a marathon, makes the runners high seem so long ago.

There is hope though and it as easy as getting on the internet and searching for the next goal, the next target, the next reason to structure a long term plan. Before you know it you’ve signed up for another race and it’s back on. Another phase begins towards another goal race which will probably have a target finish time just that little bit quicker than the previous race. Let’s face it we don’t do all this to slow down !

So my advice is to get back on the horse (so to speak, if you actually get on a horse you’ll probably get disqualified, remember this is a running blog!) and set yourself your next goal. It works for me, no off season, the next race is normally a few months away at worst but I know it’s there for me, waiting. Admittedly after a marathon I do feel low for a few days because I love to run marathons and the feeling you get when you finish one is why we do what we do. It has never let me down in 43 runs so far . (and the 20 ultra-marathons have also delivered of course)

Remember we are runners, we need a goal, something to make those 5am alarm calls worthwhile. What else is there to do at 5am in the morning anyway?

Another runner who understands goals is Meb Keflezighi who explains his thoughts in his excellent book ‘ Meb for Mortals’. One of my favourite reads and high recommended. Scott Douglas, from Runners World, has cheery picked some great insights from Meb in the article below.

Goals form your road map to success. You won’t get near your potential without having good goals. We’re wired as humans to dream of what might be and then figure out how to make that dream a reality.

I never would have won the Boston and New York City Marathons, plus an Olympic silver medal, without setting the goals to do so. I might have occasionally run a good race, but I wouldn’t have been able to regularly beat some of the best runners in the world. Everything that I’ve achieved physically in running started psychologically, with the simple thought, “I want to do this.”You might say that you don’t want to be like that with your running—you just want to run to relieve stress, not create more of it, and that the rest of your life is plenty goal oriented. But you might not realize that you probably already set goals in your running.

You don’t head out the door saying, “I’m going to run until I get tired.” You have a route in mind or a general idea of the duration your run will be. You probably also usually run a certain number of times each week, and you probably aren’t happy if something keeps you from getting in that many. So you already have some basic running goals, even if you’ve never stated them as goals. Setting more-formal goals may help you enjoy your running even more.

The best goals have certain elements that make your success more likely. Here’s what I think good goals have in common.

A good goal has personal meaning. Nobody ever told me, “You have to win the 2014 Boston Marathon” or “You have to make the 2012 Olympic team.” Those were goals I set for myself. When I told myself, “I want to win Boston,” it just felt right. I knew that chasing that goal would motivate me to do what was necessary to achieve it and that doing so would require me to do my best.Your goals should have that same pull on you. They should be things you want to achieve for yourself, not to meet someone else’s expectations. Training to reach a goal requires a lot of hard work. When you hit a tough stretch, either physically or mentally, if the goal you’re working toward has deep significance for you, you’ll find a way to persevere. But if someone else thrust the goal upon you, when you hit tough stretches, you’re going to think, “Wait, why am I doing this?”

Most of us have enough areas in our lives where we have to meet others’ expectations. Let your running be about your own hopes and dreams.

A good goal is specific. Notice how specific the goals I set for myself were: I wanted to win the 2014 Boston Marathon. I wanted to make the 2012 Olympic team. There’s no ambiguity there. I knew exactly what I wanted to do, and that helped me decide how I should go about doing it.

Here’s a time example. At the beginning of 2001, one of my goals for the year was to break the American record for 10,000 meters. The time I needed to beat was 27:20.56. It doesn’t get much more specific than knowing to the 100th of a second what I needed to run to meet my goal. That specificity told me exactly what pace I needed to run in the race and what times to hit in workouts. Thanks to the guidance provided by my specific goal, I was able to run 27:13.98 that year, an American record that stood until 2010.

Now consider if I had stated my goals more generally: I want to run well at Boston. I want to run faster in the 10,000 meters. “Run well” is so much more subjective than “win.” How would I know during and after the race if I’d run well? And how would I know what to do in training to meet that goal? Saying simply that I wanted to improve my 10-K personal best is more specific than the Boston example, but it still wouldn’t have been as motivating.

So include an element of specificity: “I want to run 30 seconds faster for 5K” instead of “I want to run faster,” or “I want to run 5 days a week” instead of “I want to run more.”

A good goal is challenging but realistic. Your goals should require you to reach outside your comfort zone while remaining within the realm of possibility. If you’ve run a 2:05 half marathon, then making your next goal to run a 2:05 half marathon won’t be all that compelling. You’ve already done it, so how motivating will it be to do it again?

But you shouldn’t go to the other extreme and say, “I want to lower my half marathon best from 2:05 to 1:30.” Your goal should be attainable within a reasonable time frame. You might eventually get down to 1:30, but it’s most likely going to occur in stages: from 2:05 to 1:58, then 1:48, then 1:43, and so on. Long-distance running is not the sport for people who crave instant gratification.

Making a Boston victory my goal was realistic. In my case, I had finished third and fifth in previous Boston marathons, so winning the race wasn’t outside the realm of possibility. Trying to win certainly required reaching, given that the race was held 2 weeks before my 39th birthday and I had the 15th-fastest personal best in the field.

An example of a too-ambitious goal for me would be saying, “I want to break the world record.” That would mean taking more than 5 ½ minutes off my personal best in one race. That’s unlikely at this stage in my career.

A good goal has a time element. It’s human nature to be motivated by a deadline. Having a date by which you want to reach your goal helps you plan how to reach it (“My marathon is in 14 weeks, so I need to come up with a training program to get from today to race day”) and provides urgency (“My marathon is in 14 weeks, so I better get training!”).

When I was training for the 2014 Boston Marathon, I told my wife, Yordanos, that it was my last chance to win the race. If at that stage of my career, I’d said, “I’d like to win the Boston Marathon someday,” it never would have happened.

There’s a sweet spot for how far away your goal should be. If you say, “I want to run this year’s New York City Marathon,” and the race is in 2 weeks and you’ve been running twice a week, well, good luck. But if you say, “I want to run the 2025 New York City Marathon,” that’s so distant that it’s unlikely to motivate you to work toward it.

For most runners, 3 to 6 months is a good range for achieving a main goal. That’s enough time to do the work to achieve it but also close enough to remain motivating on a daily basis.

To work toward that goal, set shorter-term goals. Decide where you should be at the end of each month leading up to your goal, and then break those months into week-by-week progress toward that month-end goal. Every week, evaluate your progress. Are you making the necessary headway toward your goal? Or did you get stuck? If you haven’t progressed enough, then you probably need to postpone your goal. Look at this as a learning experience rather than failure. Ask yourself, “I said I would do this, but it hasn’t been happening, so what do I need to do differently?”

A good goal keeps you motivated. I write down my goals so there’s no question of what I’m aiming for. There it is in black and white: “I want to do this, I want to do that.” If you’re like me, you’ll find that regularly seeing your goals is a way to keep yourself honest.

Tell a few close people your goals. Doing so makes it easier to keep making the right choices to meet a particular goal. If you tell your training partner you’re going to run your first marathon, it will be easier to keep your running dates together. You don’t want your friend to say, “Wait, you’re canceling our run? I thought you were training for a marathon.”

In the months leading up to the 2014 Boston Marathon, Yordanos would say, “Shouldn’t you be sleeping?” when she thought I was staying up too late. Family and friends will also support you when you hit the inevitable rough patches. I’m not advocating telling the whole world your goal. Stick with a small group of people who you know will care enough to want to help you reach it.

With everyone else, underpromise and overdeliver.

General day to day ramblings

Do race finish time predictors work ?

11 January bigkevmatthews@gmail.com 2 Comments

I’m a big believer in trusting in your training, put in the hard work and you’ll be rewarded. I have said it many times on this blog running is an honest sport, this of course is a two edged sword with very few examples of running faster than expected times off poor or no training. Of course returning from injury can sometimes be a blessing in disguise because you are forced to take some time off and this, combined with good training before and after the injury, can surprise you with better than expected times. Which leads me to the point of this post, predicted finishing times for longer races from shorter races. The main example I use is my current half time times two and add 10 minutes, this will normally be pretty close to my marathon time. e.g. if I’m running 1:20 for the half my marathon time is around 2:50 (1:20 * 2 + 10 minutes)

My current half PB is 1:15:00 but this hasn’t translated to a 2:40 marathon ( I managed 2:41:41 ) mainly due to the half time being one of those races when ‘the magic happens‘ and you out perform what you thought you were capable of. Saying that to get to within 2 minutes is pretty accurate. When I ran my marathon PB , 2:41:14 my half time was 1:16:24 which was closer. You can use a 10k or even a 5k time as an indicator but of curse the margin for error is probably larger as you are multiplying the finishing time by either 4 (10k) or 8 (5k). There are various websites where you can ply in your predictor race and your goal race and get an estimated finish time. A good example is the McMillan website ( https://www.mcmillanrunning.com ) or Runners World ( https://www.runnersworld.com/marathon-training/heres-a-better-marathon-time-predictor )

The Runners World race time predictor has bee rebuilt apparently (see below) It seems most race predictors are overall generous with their predictions and the work by Andrew Vickers paints a gloomier picture by also adding in weekly mileage. Common sense really as those runners running higher mileage would be better prepared , cardio-wise if nothing else, for the longer races. Most, if not all, race predictors never ask for weekly training mileage, strange this has been over looked.

As always I have an amusing story reference race predictors. My good friend Mike Kowal wasn’t running as much as he should have been due to injury (we use to call him ‘sick note’ as he was injured so much. There was the amusing story where he got injured at the sports massage clinic because the physio left the heat pack on and told Mike to call out if it got to hot. Not wanting to seem a wimp Mike kept quiet and ended up with second degree burns ! You get the picture…) Anyhow because Mike hadn’t run a half , 10k or even a 5k he started to predict his marathon finishing times off even shorter distances, At one point I’m sure he had it down to a 10 metre sprint. This is not to be recommend for predicting a marathon finish not matter what magic he used, it is to be noted Mike is an Engineer and probably developed some devilish formula to show a sub3 prediction of a 4 paces sprint. Funnily enough he did go sub3 on his first marathon but has yet to repeat the magic on subsequent outings.

All joking aside can you use a race predictor and rely on the predicted time to set your pace for a marathon ? Remember the marathon runner who slows the least normally wins (or achieves their goal). Predicted time and the resulting race pace is pivotal to success when it comes to running a marathon so get the predicted time wrong and the race pace will also be wrong, which equates to failure. I like the idea of entering two previous results in the Runners World predictor because it adds in experience which is so important to race finish times. I can predict to within +/- 90 seconds my marathon time these days and this is all down to experience. With over 60 marathons and ultra’s under my belt I can predict my race pace very accurately and have only hit the wall twice, once in my first marathon by not preparing and running a time beyond me and once when I was struggling mentally and talked myself into failure. (I have covered the mental part of marathon running in various posts, so important and so under estimated.) With experience and good quality training comes consistency.

I used the Running World Race Time Predictor and added in my best 10k and 5k times and adjusted the weekly mileage until I got a sub 2:40 marathon time. I had to get two 160 km a week (100 miles) to get my predicted time under 2hrs 40 minutes for the full marathon. Probably about right truth be told but it never asked for my age which would surely be another factor that would be pivotal to the accuracy ? I’m 51 in a few weeks and assuming all the variables where the same I would expect a 35 year old runner, for example, with the same race times to out perform me. Maybe I’ll try and run a 2:38:30 in June this year, hell the computer says ‘Yes’ so what could possibly go wrong ?

Runner’s World has updated its Race Time Predictor to give you a more accurate assessment of your likely marathon finish time. What’s changed? For starters, when predicting a marathon time, you can now input the results of two races you recently completed, instead of just one. Because past finishing times are helpful in determining future finishing times, this info will produce a more accurate result. In addition, the new Predictor allows you to get a result adjusted for your average weekly training miles. If you ran 50 miles a week in training, you will get a faster predicted time than if you ran 20 miles a week. This is a breakthrough approach not available from other calculators.

The new Predictor is derived from data-driven research just published at Bio Med Central. The paper, titled “An empirical study of race times in recreational endurance runners,” is available as free, full text. Lead author Andrew Vickers, a sub-3-hour marathoner and cancer statistician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, found that most pace calculators underestimate correct marathon finish times by 5 to 20 minutes. As a result, runners using the calculators to pace themselves might start too fast in their marathons—a sure recipe for failure.

A smarter method: Have a more accurate appraisal of your marathon time from the start, and plan your pace accordingly. That’s what the new Predictor is designed to help you do. (Keep in mind predictions can be moot without the right plan to get you to the starting line. Find the perfect Runner’s World training plan for your goal right here.)

Many previous online calculators are based on innovative work done by American runner and course-measurement expert Pete Riegel. Only Riegel faced a severe limitation: When he created his first “equivalent time calculator” in 1977, he had little data to work with, so he based his calculator on the performances of world-record holders, fully realizing that his formula might not apply to mid-pack and back-of-the-pack runners.

Once unleashed, Riegel’s formula became so popular that it took on a life on its own. Many websites adopted it, while few questioned its limitations.

Other calculators were based on aerobic fitness, a key component of marathon success, but far from the only one. (See more below.)

To devise a calculator based on the performances of more typical runners (non world-record-holders), Vickers collected training and race-results data via web survey from 1,022 recreational marathoners. His subjects had an average marathon finish time of 3:28 (men) and 3:54 (women), roughly 50 minutes faster than average national times collected by Running USA, but still far from elite status. And, the Vickers data set included 150 runners with marathon times over 4:30. “That’s a reasonably large number for statistical analysis,” he says, “and much larger than many other studies.”

When Vickers ran the numbers, he discovered a discrepancy between his results and other marathon predictors. Here’s an example: Let’s assume you have run a half marathon in 2 hours and want to estimate your marathon time. While many online calculators will give you a prediction from 4:07 to 4:12, Vickers finds that 4:17 to 4:30 is more accurate.

Runner’s World continues to use the Riegel formula for race time predictions up through the half marathon. Both Vickers and others have found that it works well for 5Ks, 10Ks, and half marathons—all the common distances shorter than the marathon.

When it comes to the marathon, however, many factors beyond pure aerobic fitness come into play. These include: training volume, fueling (pre-marathon and during-the-marathon), hydration, thermoregulation, and more. All these factors tend to slow your marathon pace, which is exactly what Vickers found in his data analysis.

Because of this, the Runner’s World Race Time Predictor was rebuilt to incorporate the more accurate formula developed by Vickers when predicting marathon times.

Of course, a lot depends on your training mileage. And the Vickers formula, unlike the others, allows you to input your weekly mileage along with your prior race times. You won’t be surprised to learn that the more you train, the faster your predicted marathon time. (Not only does it allow for training mileage, it actually requires it. So, if training mileage isn’t included, the Predictor falls back to the Riegel formula.)

Vickers’s analysis also reached other potentially useful conclusions counter to conventional wisdom. These include:

Training mileage affects all race results equally. In other words, your training mileage is just as important for 5Ks as it is for marathons.

Tempo training has a greater impact, correlating with faster times, on 5K and 10K race results than on marathon results. Also, tempo training is slightly more effective in general than interval training. Interval training has the same impact on all race results; it’s not more important for the 5K and 10K than it is for the marathon.

Aging affects all distances equally. It doesn’t have more impact on shorter distances than on longer distances.

And, in support of conventional wisdom, Vickers found that women come closer to men in the marathon (running about 10 percent slower) than in the 5K (about 20 percent slower). And, of course, more training miles lead to faster race results for everyone. Check out the new Runner’s World Race Time Predictor.

A Mike Kowal 10metre marathon predictor run with the man himself. I think he predicted a sub 2hour marathon off this one?

General day to day ramblings

Some runs are about “mental preparation” rather than running. Bring on 2018…….

31 December bigkevmatthews@gmail.com 1 Comment

On my obligatory Sunday morning long run today my mind drifted to the years highs and lows and what the future may hold in 2018. I have said many times on my blog you always need a goal otherwise what is the point, without a goal you can so easily turn into a ‘once a week’ runner or even worse a ‘jogger‘. The definition of a ‘jogger’ in my mind is someone who won’t commit to being a runner by putting in the time and also can be spotted by ‘jogging on the spot‘ at traffic lights. A real runner would never do this, instead they would stop their Garmin and wait patiently before exploding back into the run annoyed at the hold up; or worse in the middle of a Strava segment being stopped in your tracks when you were on for a PR or even CR. (you do have Strava right..? http://www.strava.com)

This morning as it is the holiday season I treated myself to a lay-in and started my Sunday morning run later than usual, around 10am. Unfortunately you pay for the lie-in with heat as your training partner and in summer this can become quite a struggle. Add in a hard 16k progressive the previous day and the 30k ahead of you is about as enticing as a turkey sandwich four days after Christmas. Needless to say I was tired after the first kilometre and things didn’t improve at all for the next two and a half hours. I counted down the kilometres one by one , every 5 minutes or so depending on the terrain. Every hill the pace slowed to a shuffle and even the down hill sections were a struggle, yep it was a good old fashioned ‘beating‘ in the heat. One thing I did notice is the second half of the run does get quicker as the kilometre’s are more reasonable figures. i.e. after 15k every new kilometre ticked off seems to be more of a reward than the previous. This is not the case with kilometre 1-15 where you are still moving towards the halfway point and the total seems so low but you are still moving so slow.

A 17k I must admit to having a sit down at a water stop and this turned into a 5 minute break from which I found it very hard to get going again. This is one of the main reasons I don’t carry money or a phone as I’m pretty sure I would have used both of these in this situation to get home quicker i.e. Uber ! After my mini-break (I was close to categorising the first 17k as one run and the next 13k as a seperate run, it was a long break ! ) I was starting back into a 1k hill which just about destroyed me but the next few kilometres were downhill so I stumbled down these and got enough of a second wind to make the 30k total I had set off to complete.

This image is to keep you interested , it serves no purpose but to remind you and I that pancakes are life, the rest is details..like Strava, good coffee and muffins.

Lesson learned, wake up at 5am and run with the boys or at least in the cooler conditions, heat is a ‘bitch‘ ,and together with ‘hills‘ and ‘wind‘, (head wind only of course) is the runners mortal enemy when looking for a good time. (I mean good time in the hours and seconds sense not a good time in the Saturday night out with the boys sense.) These late runs do serve their purpose though and there is method in my madness. They teach you about mental toughness as the run really is a slog from the first step to the last. You need to have these runs once in a while because you will need this mental side to your running when you put on a bib, trust me. If every run was easy and required no effort then you won’t improve. Matt Fitzgerald realised this and stipulates 80% easy , 20% hard. (and remember “in Fitzgerald we trust“. http://mattfitzgerald.org/about-matt/ ) They both serve their purpose and both are needed to improve. All pace and you’ll eventually burn out or worse but with no pace you’ll just run slow, a lot , and when it comes time to step up you’ll be unable to maintain the required pace.

Of course this doesn’t make you feel any better when you are sitting in the shade after ‘suffering’ through 17k knowing you have at least 13k to go, with the temperature rising and your motivation draining away quicker than a bit coin portfolio when the truth eventually comes out. Pay back is when you crawl home and log the 30k run on Strava satisfied with completing this ‘once every few months‘ bad boy of a run. Personally I have run many of these and always normally just before the taper stage, so at the end of a long race preparation stage where distance is my friend. I actually know after one of these runs it is time to start tapering as my mind and body are fatigued. This is the case now as I have three weeks before I attempt my second 100k ultra, ( http://australiadayultra.com ) the one I promised myself I’d never run again (yeah right , as if that was ever going to happen?) For those new to my blog my friend Rob Donkersloot, owner of why walk when ( http://whywalkwhen.com ), put together this video of my first attempt this time last year. Worth a look…. https://vimeo.com/201134104

Was is that bad, I’m even smiling in this photo? ADU100K.

Right goals for 2018, remember I mentioned goals in the first paragraph which now seems a long time ago. ? Anyhow my goal for 2018 is the same as every year really, to run as much as possible and not slow down. Is this achievable as I reach 51 in a few months, not sure, maybe ? I’ll need my mental toughness that’s for sure as I feel this is the part of running that you lose first and once this weakens everything starts to fall apart. I feel 2016 was a stella year and an unexpected bonus as I was happy that 2013 was my best year , so far. The calf injury in 2017 made this year challenging but overall I’m happy with my times and even had a few PB’s and course records scattered among my results. The only downside is the runs are getting tougher and I realised that more this year than last. The enjoyment and motivation is still there but the training times of old seem to be unreachable these days. Even today I was reminiscing on some 30km plus long runs where my average would be hovering around the 3:50 minutes a kilometre, today it was nearly 5mins/k; admittedly it was hot and hilly. Could I run a 30km sub 4min/k average pace now , it would be a challenge, where-as a few years ago this was my Sunday go-to pace. In my defence I have embraced the 80/20 concept but several authors feel as you reach your fifties it is better to concentrate on pace rather than distance and spend more time in the gym performing specific activities tailored for the older athlete. Throw in nutrition and there is still a lot of variables for me to play about with as I enter 2018.

Last post of 2017, a good year with lots of great running adventures with good friends, great coffee, pancakes and world class muffins. I’m a lucky man to be able to surround myself with such good friends and live in perhaps the most perfect environment for running globally. There is lots to do next year and don’t you worry I’ll be writing about all of it. To sign off for 2017 I hope you all have a great New Year and lets make 2018 even better than 2017, bringing down our own personal best times and cranking up the distance for our longest run and race, remember it’s all about numbers. Yours in running……